Monthly Archives: April 2010

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Song of the Day #632: ‘She Moves On’ – Paul Simon

Graceland was a hard act to follow, to put it mildly, but four years later, Simon pulled it off by releasing 1990’s The Rhythm of the Saints, an album that built on the world music fusion of his masterpiece but felt like something completely new.

I was in my freshmen year of college when The Rhythm of the Saints came out and it was the first Paul Simon album that I bought on its release day. Before that, all of Simon’s music I had inherited or discovered. I spent my high school years familiarizing myself with the Simon and Garfunkel catalog, old classics I’d missed out on growing up. But the idea of new Paul Simon music that was new to the rest of the world, too, was exciting.

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Song of the Day #631: ‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’ – Paul Simon

Following the disappointment of Hearts and Bones (which followed the disappointment of One Trick Pony), Simon was on the ropes. And he responded by recording one of the greatest albums of all time, 1986’s Graceland.

Inspired by the sound of South African groups whose music he’d been introduced to, Simon packed up and flew there to record his newest batch of songs. He worked with the vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo on several tracks (including today’s SOTD) and a host of local musicians. The music hewed closely to that African sound but Simon also found room for a little Tex Mex and zydeco toward the end of the album.

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Song of the Day #630: ‘The Man in Me’ – Bob Dylan

“Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place.”

Yes, I am in fact talking about The Dude, here. If anybody is qualified to steal the spotlight from Bob Dylan on a Dylan Weekend, it’s Jeffrey Lebowski.

Thanks to The Dude —and his creators, the Coen Brothers — the other best-known track on New Morning is ‘The Man in Me,’ which played over the opening credits of The Big Lebowski.

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Song of the Day #629: ‘If Not For You’ – Bob Dylan

Just four months after Self Portrait left Bob Dylan’s fan and the critical community scratching their collective heads, he released an album that pretty much quieted the storm. New Morning was a simple, warm album that marked the return of Dylan as a songwriter and, even more important, the return of Dylan’s trademark voice.

For all of the complaints about Dylan’s lack of vocal ability, it’s funny how a couple albums of his much smoother country croon had people longing for the nasally whine.

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Song of the Day #628: ‘Hearts and Bones’ – Paul Simon

Paul Simon’s slump continued with the release of 1983’s Hearts and Bones. This album, though, was undeserving of its tepid commercial and critical reception. It contains some of Simon’s very best work, in my estimation.

It also contains ‘Cars are Cars,’ which could well be his very worst work, but let’s not hold that against him. I think one ‘Train in the Distance’ is worth a handful of ‘Cars are Cars,’ no question.

Hearts and Bones also features two songs called ‘Think Too Much’ (versions ‘A’ and ‘B’), the latter (which actually shows up first in the tracklist) is a beautiful little island ditty about a dying love affair.

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